Freedman's Village was established in 1863 on the Arlington Estate and the former Custis-Lee Plantation as a camp for fugitive and liberated slaves (called “contraband”) to readjust post emancipation.
While its exact borders are not known, Freedman's Village is generally said to have covered a portion of south Arlington, Virginia and included the southern part of what is currently Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington Heights, Navy Annex and the Pentagon—at the time owned by the Federal Government.
Run by the Freedman's Bureau, it was initially set up as a temporary camp, but lasted for more than 30 years and became a fully self-sustained entity. Freedman's Village was intended to house refugees, train them in skilled labor and to educate freed children. In addition to 50 duplex style housing units there was an industrial school, several schools for children, a hospital, a home for the aged and churches. The village also operated several farms whose produce was sold to consumers in Washington D.C.
Notable residents of the village include Jesse Pollard, Arlington’s first African American judge. Sojourner Truth lived in the village for one year in 1864. Many laborers in Freedman's Village worked on the construction of the capitol building. In 1866, the Army recruited the 107th regiment of U.S. Color Troops from the village for nearby Fort Myer.
Life in Freedman’s however was not easy, those who worked government jobs on nearby farms or those doing construction were paid $10 per month half of which was turned over to the federal government to be put in a general fund to run the town. Everyone else who lived on site was charged between $1 and $3 rent.[1] In addition to meager salaries and disputes and tensions about the rent, there were efforts made at various points to disband the village. However, because of status and numbers and newly acquired rights, residents were able to stave off closure for a number of years.
At its height more than 1,100 freed slaves were given land by the Federal Government where they lived until 1900 when the government bought the land back and purposed it as a military installation. Many of the residents moved on, but a substantial number stayed and settled in what later became the Nauck/Green Valley and Halls Hill community.[2]
No one has ever undertaken an organized excavation of the known Freedman's Village site however, it was reported that during the construction of the Sheraton Hotel at Navy Annex, workers uncovered part of the village cemetery. Other than the 3, 800 graves in Arlington Cemetery (most inscribed with the words “civilian” and “citizen”) and a scale model on display at Arlington House, there is little left of a trace of Freedman’s Village. The graves are located in section 27 on the Iwo Jima side of the cemetery.
Sources
edit- National Park Service "Freedman's Village" http://www.nps.gov/arho/historyculture/emancipation.htm
- The Black Heritage Museum of Arlington Virginia http://www.arlingtonblackheritage.org/
- Holland, Jesse Arlington's Lost Black City,The Associated Press, April 25, 2010
- Historical Marker Database http://www.hmdb.org
- National Archives Records of the Field Offices For The District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1870 http://www.archives.gov/research/microfilm/m1902.pdf